Saved by the ballMembers of Haiti's amputee soccer team are on a journey to show that lost limbs don't mean they have nothing to give

CINDY HORSWELL, HOUSTON CHRONICLE |
December 4, 2010

MacKendy François shows his follow-through during a practice game Thursday in Pasadena.

A dozen Haitian soccer players raced across a grassy field Thursday in Pasadena like a herd of gazelles, showing such grace and speed one would think they were born with crutches strapped to their forearms. Each is missing a leg.

The goalie, despite a missing arm, is equally nimble as he lunges to block their shots with his body and head.

Just 11 months ago, goalie Emmanuel Ladoueeur was buried alive under tons of rubble — holding his dead mother in his arms - for four days until rescuers could free him after Haiti's worst earthquake in 200 years.

Another player, Mackendy Francois, spent two hours after the quake using a dull saw without any anesthesia to cut off his own leg that had him pinned under some debris. A third, Ariel Valembrun, worked hours to extract his crushed hand from a crevice and worm his way through a tiny hole to freedom.

These three young men have amazed spectators by healing their bodies and psyches enough to make the newly formed 15-member Haitian amputee soccer team that competed in October for the 2010 Amputee World Cup in Argentina.

"People thought we'd lose by 20 or more points, but we made a very respectable showing. We only lost to England 2-1, which has been at this event forever," said Dr. Fred Sorrells, president of the International Institute of SPORT in Arlington, the team's nonprofit sponsor.

The team performed a soccer expo Thursday night

at a recreation center in Pasadena and was scheduled to show off their talents on Friday on the International Day for Disabled Persons.

Ladoueeur, 24, recalled being grief-stricken after losing not only an arm but also his parents and three of his four siblings when the family's apartment building collapsed. He was certain then that he, too, would die after not eating or drinking for four days - except for a small dribble of water that barely wet his tongue.

Speaking in French Creole, he explained, "A relative had poured a bucket of water onto the debris pile, hoping some might leak down to anyone trapped beneath it."

Although crying for help for days, nobody realized Ladoueeur was down there until a neighbor pulled from the same rubble told searchers where to look. Concrete was pried and lifted until a rescuer could crawl down a hole and tie a rope around Ladoueeur, allowing eight men to hoist him free.

He, like the other two players, credits faith in God for both his survival and for his spot on the soccer team.

"I started gaining strength after joining the team because I finally got something nutritious to eat," he said, though he still struggles with phantom pains from his missing arm. "Soccer has changed me completely. I lost my earthly family, but I found a new family in the team."

His fellow player, Francois, 23, was using a sewing machine at a T-shirt factory when he heard the quake's rumble and the walls suddenly tumbled down. He was one of only three of the 15 working there who survived.

His leg was pinned under a concrete pillar, and the unstable building was being jarred by repeated aftershocks.

"The only way out was to cut off my leg," he said. "As you can imagine, it was a terrible excruciating pain. I cried out to God to help me through this extreme suffering."

Rescuers helped him use a saw to sever the limb, but three times they had to abandon him due to the tremors. Finally, after two hours, Francois managed to finish the job himself.

He still faces challenges - his pregnant wife and child are living in a shed with no indoor plumbing back home - but feels since joining the team that God has a plan for his life.

Valembrun, 29, was at school studying to be an electrician when the building collapsed, killing at least five classmates. He spent seven hours wriggling out of the debris that had crushed one of his hands.

"I did not get any medical help for five days," he said, and after he finally underwent surgery, the hospital ran out of medicine. His wound became severely infected, and he said he would have died if he hadn't found another hospital run by Italians who were able to amputate his right arm.

Valembrun also believes playing soccer saved him.

"It's a great stress reliever," he said with a smile. "It's connected me with others like me. Back home the disabled are ignored and rejected."

The soccer team's main goal is not just scoring, said Sorrells, but helping Third World countries learn that the disabled still have something to contribute.